Peter E. Pflaum - Golden Globe -

The Synergy Network

http://www.wiredbrain.com/documents// wiredbrain@webname.com

years:

45%.Decrease in quality of life in the U.S. since 1970, as

measured by the Index of Social Health:

51%.-- page 3 People today are on average four-and-a-half times

richer than their great-grandparents at the turn of the century.

Amount of time the average working American spends behind the

wheel: 9 hours per week

Increase in average daily TV viewing since 1960: 39%

American parents spend 40% less time with their children today

than they did in 1965.

Employed Americans spend 163 hours more per year on the job than

they did in 1969.-- page 4

Percentage of Americans who say they have achieved the American

Dream:[among] those earning less than $15,000 a year:5%

[among] those earning more than $50,000 a year:6%

Highest income group in U.S.: doctors Professions with highest

proportion of unhappy people: doctors and lawyers-- page 9

Now, there are flaws in the way this booklet treats

itsstatistics.

The worst is that it does not distinguish between

statistics that truly indicate something intrinsic about the

variable under discussion, and statistics which are likely to

have been strongly influenced by *unreported* external

circumstances.

For example, one reason why the under-$15,000 crowd is nearly

ashappy as the over-$50,000 crowd *may* be that the

under-$15,000s include people who are retired and living off nest

eggs, while the over-$50,000 bracket includes many people in

their prime who are struggling with the vicissitudes of careers.

The true meaning of this particular statistic may therefore not

be quite so simple as the "wealth won't bring you happiness"

message which this little booklet preaches. But the booklet

doesn't note such possibilities. Also, the book does not

discriminate between statistics of different degrees of

reliability. Most of the statistics used are taken at one or

more removes from the original research, via newspaper columns,

popular texts, and general reference books. At least some of

them may well be out of date, or based on estimates or too-tiny

samples or ambiguously-worded survey questions, or may have

gotten misremembered and misrepeated somewhere along the line.

Theseare standard problems, alas, with second-hand statistics.

Finally, in talking about the steep rise in American consumerism,

the booklet appears to take no note of the fact that the richest

2% of our nation's population has been getting much, much richer,

while our nation's middle class has been getting markedly poorer,

for a good quarter of a century now. This simple fact may well

help explain why the percentage of contented Americans is down,

even though American consumption is up.

All that aside, however, there is still a fantastic amount of

good food for thought, and good essay and sermon material, in

this little thing. I think it's wonderful.